Members of the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory, headed by Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Marcelo Dapino, recently completed an outreach project with East High School, an inner city school located in Columbus, Ohio.
The goal of the project is to provide pre-engineering freshman and sophomore students at East High School with hands-on laboratory experience in order to complement the students’ coursework and instill an interest in science and engineering. For the past three years, East High School students have been working alongside Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Candidate Adam Hehr to measure and study tensile properties of common engineering materials such as polycarbonate plastic and aluminum. Through this program, the students learned experimental procedures and safety practices, and were exposed to technical reporting. Materials for the project were donated by the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory.
![](https://smsl.osu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/media/nsf_easthigh.jpg?itok=jE68Kl-7)
East High School student works with in-house tensile tester